From The Ashes Form
Kim Hamilton Sulit’s exhibition, Shreds of Memory, gives intimate peeks into the artist’s journey as he unabashedly expresses his take on the delicate tapestry of life, given visual form through painstakingly pierced wood and shaped canvas, cleverly worked charcoal, selective installation of light sources, and glazes upon glazes of thin paint. Sulit takes us where recollection itself blurs with the passage of time. As he alludes to classical sculpture and contemporary objects giving form to his pieces, the artist offers us fresh chances of exploring the emotional and often perturbing variances that differ the past from our present.
Never the artist to shy away from impulse or go with the flow of current trends others are taking, Sulit maintains his stance of following instinct as he himself negotiates the fickle vagaries of our earthly passages. In his biggest piece for the show, he gathers the corporeal and ethereal in a glowing forest, restlessly moving and conversing among themselves. Innumerable layers of splashes, dribbles, and drips of pigment render a mysterious and luminous feel, inviting audiences to be part of the happening. Utilizing Hellenized ideals affords the artist a stable foundation to build his story around, championing narrative without compromising the physicality of his pieces. Embodying ancient art in present-day works not only harkens to his classical leanings, it also expresses tribute-making while seeing what is time-honored under modern light and marrying them with his thoughts and emotions. Grief gives way to hope and a tenacious resolve to power on, guided by advice and even love from the past, remembered.
The here and now also makes its presence felt, however, as Sulit plays with the forms of a popular toy, familiar objects, and unmistakable shapes from plants and flowers in his other works. Executing a blooming still life with the use of charcoal and foliage in water media, for example, dwells on the ironies of capturing the ephemeral in accumulated and aggregated dust. These dark particles give further depth to the recognition that indeed, everything is transitory, and the difference lies not only in perception but also in the ways we hold on to fragments of specific images kept in mind.
As Shreds of Memory leaves us awestruck at the intricate and multilayered works shared by Sulit, we are reminded of the little things that make the totality of life rich and complex. Drops, dust, and drive captured in the artist’s works and own words remain:
The little things nearest to me that hold me up, haunt me, and rip me apart;
The little things I lost, cherish, and care about
The little things that I tell myself
The things that help me sleep at night
All this while we make, remake, and destroy the detritus of reminiscence ourselves.
Kaye O’Yek